Blueberry Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes

We’re right in the thick of summer, so now is as good a time as any to start thinking about cooking with summer fruit.  There’s a surprising number of ways to use the sweet seasonal produce to create delicious dinners and sweet breakfasts. Today let’s just chat about how to cook with fruit and then I’ll give you a delicious recipe for Blueberry Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes!

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This recipe/ post was originally published on July 29, 2019.  It was updated on August 26,2021.

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Cooking with Summer Fruit

 

I took this class, Cooking with Summer Fruit, at my local community college and it was such a fun and delicious day.  We all made different recipes using seasonal fruit and discussed how to use up fruit that’s about to turn, how to peel fruit, and customizing recipes.  

The recipes we made included grilled figs with prosciutto, pork with a spicy plum sauce, raspberry balsamic chicken, sriracha peach chicken, and the blueberry buttermilk cornmeal pancakes.  I had to jump on the only breakfast option because y’all know that I love me some breakfast.

 

 

Tips and Tricks

 

It’s easy to tweak recipes to work with the ingredients you have on hand.  In any recipe, you can swap out any stone fruit for another stone fruit or berries for a different berry.  You can easily make these pancakes with raspberries or diced strawberries. Never feel like you have to follow a recipe verbatim.  They are just guides to help you along.

In some recipes, you may need to peel some fruits like peaches, nectarines, or plums.  Please, do not try to do this with a peeler! That would make a huge, nasty mess. Toss any thin skinned fruit (or veggie!) into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds.  Then place them in a bowl of ice water. The skin should peel off with just your fingers.  

 

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Choosing the Fruit

 

It’s important to keep your recipe in mind when you’re choosing the produce at the grocery store.  When you’re cooking with Summer fruit, they’ve got to be at the right stage of ripeness. If a recipe will be using the fruit in chunks or slices, it’s got to be firm enough to hold it’s shape during the cooking process.  But if you’re making a sauce, ripe and juicy is perfect.

 

And don’t throw out those berries starting to turn!  It happens all the time. You grab one of those berry tubs, but before you know it they’re starting to get a bit mushy and you don’t really want to eat them, but you don’t want to throw them out either.  Dump over ripe berries into a saucepan with water and sugar and cook them down. This makes a great topping for pancakes, waffles, yogurt, and oatmeal!

 

 

Blueberry Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes

 

I absolutely love these pancakes!  They’re not too sweet and the cornmeal adds a unique flavor and texture.  They’re kinda like cornbread and pancakes had a delicious love child.  Pancakes are a pretty basic recipe, and this one is no exception. That being said, it never hurts to refresh yourself on a few points.

Pancakes are a great way to start cooking with Summer fruit.  You can either toss the berries in the batter, or plop them on each individual pancake after you pour batter into the skillet.  This is completely a matter of personal preference. The berries add sweetness and a nice juicy explosion!

 

Related Reading: Banana Bread Waffles

 

Make Better Pancakes

 

It’s imperative that you don’t over mix pancake batter.  This will leave you with a stack of flat, chewy pancakes.  Boo. Combine dry and wet ingredients separately, then mix gently until just combined.  The buttermilk and baking soda combo is going to help give a nice rise.

Cook times for pancakes can vary greatly depending on the size of the pancake and the temperature you’re cooking with.  Instead of relying on cook times, you should look for visual clues. The edges should be dry and you’ll see bubbles on top. When you lift up a corner, the underside should be golden brown.  You can see exactly what I’m talking about in this recipe video.

 

 

Fresh or Frozen

 

I have made these pancakes with both fresh and frozen blueberries and loved both options.  When you use fresh berries, you can toss them right into the batter.  However, frozen blueberries will turn your batter purple and watery if you chuck them in right away.

For frozen berries, I suggest defrosting and straining them to remove any excess liquid.  I then sprinkled berries on top of my cornmeal pancakes as they cooked.  But then, I got an idea!  If you want blueberries on top of your pancakes, put them in the pan and top with batter.

 

Pure genius.

 

 

Blueberry Syrup Hack

 

When I made these blueberry buttermilk cornmeal pancakes with frozen berries, I let them thaw in a strainer placed over a bowl.  This caught all of the yummy blueberry juice that leaked out!  I only got a few tablespoons out of it, so I mixed it with an equal amount of maple syrup.

 

This blueberry syrup is pretty runny, but it’s a great way to pack even more blueberry flavor into these scrumptious pancakes!

 

Related Reading: Red Velvet Pancakes

 

How About You?

 

Now that you’ve got some recipe ideas and a few tricks up your sleeve, how are you going to begin cooking with Summer fruit?  If you need even more inspiration, check out my Summer Seasonal Food Guide.  Go out there and get crackin’! Summer will be over before you know it and you don’t want to miss out on the delicious fruits of the season.

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